The 2026 MLP Draft
A $1.23 million bid, and the keeper mistake that decided a title.
MLP does not run a normal draft. There is no pick order, no reverse-standings lottery and no spending cap — teams bid real money for each selection slot, one at a time, and the order emerges from who wins the auctions. On 27 February 2026 that produced a $1.23 million bid for a single player, and a keeper mistake that arguably decided the championship six months later.
How the auction works
Every team carries six players, three men and three women. Before the draft each team could protect up to five of them at the keeper deadline on 15 February; 54 players were kept across the 20 teams, with teams ranging from none to five keepers. Kept players had to slot into a team’s top four roster spots.
That left 66 selections, run in two phases. The first 28 filled out starting fours — 16 women and 12 men — and every team had to complete its first four roster slots before anyone could draft a bench player. The remaining 38 picks filled fifth and sixth slots, 18 women and 20 men.
Teams bid for each slot as it came up. The minimum bid was $10,000 for a slot used on one of the first four roster spots and $1,000 for a fifth or sixth. MLP states it plainly: “There is no spending cap for the Drafts.”
Two mechanics matter for what happens next. Players carry a Draft Points value — 10,000 for existing free agents, 80,000 for new or emerging talent added since the 2025 draft — and can be held at that value for up to three seasons. And this year’s winning bid becomes next year’s keeper price, which is why an expensive pick is a multi-season commitment rather than a one-off.
MLP writes them in dollars ($10,000 / $1,000). Pickleball.com writes the identical rule in draft points (10,000 / 1,000). We have quoted the league’s own wording. Separately, a claim that teams “were required to drop at least one player” appears on MLP’s draft page but sits awkwardly against the stated maximum of five keepers, and we could not corroborate it elsewhere — so it is not stated as fact here.
The most expensive player in the sport’s history
St. Louis won the first slot with a record $1.23 million bid and took Anna Bright. It was a three-way fight — St. Louis, New Jersey and Columbus, with Columbus dropping out. When St. Louis bid $875,000 and New Jersey answered $990,000, it was clear the price would clear seven figures.
Worth being precise about where that money goes: the $1.23 million is paid to MLP, not to Bright. The bid buys the draft slot, not the player’s salary.
The mistake of the draft
Dallas dropped Jorja Johnson — the 2025 league MVP — at the keeper deadline, apparently expecting New Jersey to drop a different player and misjudging who would be available to re-sign. New Jersey took Johnson at No. 2 for a reported $800,000 and put her alongside Anna Leigh Waters. Contemporary coverage called New Jersey the clear winner of the draft on the day.
Six months later New Jersey won the franchise’s first championship and Waters was named league MVP. Dallas lost to St. Louis in the semifinals.
Who fell
The auction format is unforgiving to solid veterans. AJ Koller went completely undrafted. Tyler Loong lasted until pick 59. Anderson Scarpa, Stephen Madonia, Rafa Hewett and Irina Tereschenko all finished the day without teams — several later returned through the waiver periods. Meanwhile the young prospects went early: Tama Shimabukuro at 9, Kiora Kunimoto at 15, Camden Chaffin at 16, Will MacKinnon at 17.
The expansion team
There was one expansion franchise in 2026, the Palm Beach Royals — the first since the 2024 launch. They were allowed a limited set of acquisitions before the keeper deadline and used all of it: Sofia Sewing signed as a free agent on 5 February at an 80,000 Draft Points value, then cash trades brought Tina Pisnik from Texas and Dekel Bar from Brooklyn. They entered the draft with three keepers and added Tyson McGuffin at 12. They made the playoffs in their first season.
A claim you will see elsewhere: some coverage describes SoCal Hard Eights as an expansion team. They were not — SoCal competed in 2025 and carried keepers that year. They went into the 2026 draft with none, which is why they took four of the first 17 picks.
No trades on draft day
Despite how it looked, no trades were executed during the draft itself. The second trade window opened the following Monday, 2 March, and the transaction trackers record nothing on 27 February. Deals were negotiated on the day; none could be announced until the window opened.
All 66 picks
| # | Team | Player | Reported bid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Louis Shock | Anna Bright | $1.23M |
| 2 | New Jersey 5s | Jorja Johnson | $800,000 |
| 3 | Columbus Sliders | Danni-Elle Townsend | $180,000 |
| 4 | Texas Ranchers | Lea Jansen | — |
| 5 | Chicago Slice | Jamie Wei | — |
| 6 | Chicago Slice | Mari Humberg | — |
| 7 | Brooklyn Pickleball Team | Dylan Frazier | $170,000 |
| 8 | Orlando Squeeze | Jack Sock | $105,000 |
| 9 | Utah Black Diamonds | Tama Shimabukuro | — |
| 10 | Phoenix Flames | Jonathan Truong | — |
| 11 | SoCal Hard Eights | Meghan Dizon | $85,000 |
| 12 | Palm Beach Royals | Tyson McGuffin | — |
| 13 | SoCal Hard Eights | Cailyn Campbell | — |
| 14 | SoCal Hard Eights | Armaan Bhatia | — |
| 15 | California Black Bears | Kiora Kunimoto | — |
| 16 | Phoenix Flames | Camden Chaffin | — |
| 17 | SoCal Hard Eights | Will MacKinnon | — |
| 18 | Bay Area Breakers | Len Yang | — |
| 19 | Dallas Flash | Callie Smith | — |
| 20 | Atlanta Bouncers | Daria Walczak | — |
| 21 | Phoenix Flames | Judit Castillo | — |
| 22 | Texas Ranchers | Sahra Dennehy | — |
| 23 | Florida Smash | Genie Bouchard | — |
| 24 | California Black Bears | Chris Haworth | — |
| 25 | Miami Pickleball Club | Nico Acevedo | — |
| 26 | Bay Area Breakers | Ella Yeh | — |
| 27 | Miami Pickleball Club | Estee Widdershoven | — |
| 28 | California Black Bears | Mohamed Anouar Braham | — |
| 29 | St. Louis Shock | John Lucian Goins | — |
| 30 | St. Louis Shock | Elsie Hendershot | — |
| 31 | Las Vegas Night Owls | Braden Jacobson | — |
| 32 | Chicago Slice | Jalina Ingram | — |
| 33 | Texas Ranchers | Luca Mack | — |
| 34 | Atlanta Bouncers | Donald Young | — |
| 35 | California Black Bears | Michael Loyd | — |
| 36 | Los Angeles Mad Drops | Gabriel Joseph | — |
| 37 | California Black Bears | Emma Nelson | — |
| 38 | Phoenix Flames | Wyatt Stone | — |
| 39 | Utah Black Diamonds | Victoria Di Muzio | — |
| 40 | Orlando Squeeze | Alex Walker | — |
| 41 | Chicago Slice | Tom Protzek | — |
| 42 | Columbus Sliders | Alli Phillips | — |
| 43 | SoCal Hard Eights | Rafa Lenhard | — |
| 44 | Miami Pickleball Club | Clayton Powell | — |
| 45 | Brooklyn Pickleball Team | Matthew Barlow | — |
| 46 | Phoenix Flames | Alexa Schull | — |
| 47 | Florida Smash | Zoey Weil | — |
| 48 | Bay Area Breakers | Genie Erokhina | — |
| 49 | Bay Area Breakers | Luc Pham | — |
| 50 | Columbus Sliders | Alex Crum | — |
| 51 | Texas Ranchers | Ava Cavataio | — |
| 52 | Orlando Squeeze | Yates Johnson | — |
| 53 | Florida Smash | Chris Crouch | — |
| 54 | Miami Pickleball Club | Aiko Yoshitomi | — |
| 55 | SoCal Hard Eights | Naomi Phuong Nguyen | — |
| 56 | Dallas Flash | Ivan Jakovljevic | — |
| 57 | Dallas Flash | Samantha Parker | — |
| 58 | New Jersey 5s | Martin Emmrich | — |
| 59 | Utah Black Diamonds | Tyler Loong | — |
| 60 | Palm Beach Royals | Tammy Emmrich | — |
| 61 | Atlanta Bouncers | Keilly Ulery | — |
| 62 | Los Angeles Mad Drops | Paula Rives Palau | — |
| 63 | Palm Beach Royals | Grayson Goldin | — |
| 64 | New Jersey 5s | Lina Padegimaite | — |
| 65 | Carolina Hogs | Brandon French | — |
| 66 | Carolina Hogs | Isabella Dunlap | — |
Picks 1–28 filled starting fours; 29–66 filled bench slots. A few runs stand out: SoCal took four of the first 17 selections off zero keepers. Phoenix and California each made five picks. Carolina, with four keepers, made only the last two picks in the draft.
Sources
MLP 2026 Draft live results · 2026 player keepers · 2026 competition updates · The Dink · Pickleball.com: most expensive player ever · Pickleball.com: who won the draft · The Kitchen: draft grades
More: all 20 team rosters · season and calendar · pro coverage
About this page. Pickleball Insiders is an independent publication, not affiliated with, endorsed by or authorised by Major League Pickleball or any team or player named here. Draft mechanics and the pick order are quoted from MLP’s own published records; reported bid figures come from named outlets and are not confirmed by the league. Where sources conflict we show the conflict rather than choosing between them. Corrections welcome and made in place. Contact · How we work